Bering_Strait_bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bering Strait crossing Bering Strait crossing There have been several proposals made by various persons, TV-channels, magazines etc. The names used for such bridges have included The Intercontinental Peace Bridge and Eurasia-America Transport Link.[1]. Tunnel names have included TKM-World Link and AmerAsian Peace Tunnel. History Possible route of Intercontinental Peace Bridge across the Bering Strait. The concept of an overland connection crossing the Bering Strait goes back before the 20th century. William Gilpin, first governor of the Colorado Territory, envisioned a vast "Cosmopolitan Railway" in 1890 linking the entire world via a series of railways. Two years later Joseph Strauss, who went on to design over 400 bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge, put forward the first proposal for a Bering Strait railroad bridge in his senior thesis.[2] The project was presented to the government of the Russian Empire, but it was rejected.[3] Interest was renewed in 1943 with the completion of the Alaska Highway linking the remote territory of Alaska with the Continental United States. Ambitious Alaskans envisioned the highway continuing to link with Nome near the Bering Strait, but no serious proposals for a bridge were made. In 1968 engineer T. Y. Lin made a feasibility study of a Bering Strait bridge and estimated a cost more than $4 billion. Like Gilpin, Lin envisioned the project as a symbol of international cooperation and unity. Lin also proposed, among other bridges, a second massive connection spanning the Strait of Gibraltar. During the Cold War, however, the concept met mostly with cool reception. Lin died in 2003. Several others have advocated a Bering Strait bridge including Russian railway engineer Anatoly Cherkasov soon after the end of the Cold War. In September 2005 when launching the Universal Peace Federation, Dr. Sun Myung Moon brought new light to the idea of building what he calls the "Bering Strait Peace King bridge and tunnel", calling all the Nautical map of Bering strait. Depth in meters. A Bering Strait crossing is a hypothesized bridge or tunnel spanning the Bering Strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka, Russia, and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, United States. The bridge or tunnel would provide an overland connection linking Asia, Africa and Europe with North America and South America. The Bering Strait could be spanned by a series of three bridges via the Diomede Islands for a total distance of about 80 km (50 miles). The two long bridges would each be slightly longer in length than the Hangzhou Bay Bridge, currently the longest seacrossing bridge in the world. The construction of such a bridge or tunnel would face unprecedented engineering, political, and financial challenges, and to date, no government has authorized the start of any planning or construction. 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia world’s governments to make a joint effort to realize world peace. Bering Strait crossing Challenges Technical challenges The route would lie just south of the Arctic Circle, subject to long, dark winters and extreme weather (average winter lows −20 °C with possible lows approaching −50 °C). Maintenance of any exposed roadway would be difficult and closures frequent. Even maintenance of enclosed roadways and pipelines could also be affected by winter weather. Ice breakup after each winter is violent and would destroy normal bridge piers. Specially shaped massive piers along the ocean floor would be needed to keep the bridge stable. The Confederation Bridge between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick addresses similar concerns but on a much smaller scale. The bridge would require thousands of kilometers of new road and/or track over extremely harsh terrain through the wilderness of Alaska and Siberia. The nearest railheads are Fairbanks, Alaska or Jackson, British Columbia on the Dease Lake branch of Canadian National on the North American side and Yakutsk on the Russian side. Russia is in the process of completing a rail connection from the Baikal Amur Mainline to Yakutsk. This may prove to be less of a problem, with a binational study going on to see if a rail link from Jackson, BC and Dease Lake, BC or Fort St. John, BC to Fairbanks, Alaska (via Whitehorse, Yukon) is feasible.[4] The United States and Canada use the British and now world standard gauge (4 feet, 8.5 inches wide) rails, while Russia uses Russian broad gauge (5 feet wide) tracks, a break-of-gauge, and this would have to be addressed. A dual-gauge track network has been proposed, as those are used in some areas of Australia, whose rail network is split into different gauges. A cheaper solution is variable gauge axles or bogie exchange, as used at several places in the world already, like the SUW 2000 Variable Gauge Axles used between Russia and Central Europe. A purely private competition was announced February 10, 2009 for the design of a bridge across the Strait via the Diomede Islands.[5] The winner(s) will be announced June 11, 2009. Economic costs and benefits Discovery Channel’s Extreme Engineering estimates the cost of a highway, double track rail and pipelines, at $105 billion, five times the cost of the Channel Tunnel. This excludes the cost of new roads and railways to reach the bridge.[6] The Discovery Channel proposal contains several extremely long suspension spans. A lower estimate for a road bridge is $15–25 billion, based on the price (US$180m) per mile of the Confederation Bridge, the longest bridge in the world to span ice covered waters. The Confederation Bridge is a pure concrete bridge, spanning the Northumberland strait. The water is 10 to 25 meters in depth, roughly half the depth of the Bering Strait. The cost for the connections would be high. Alone, a road to the Fairbanks area, about 700 miles (1,100 km), would cost at least $6 billion. The distances on the Russian side are larger than that. A railway would have to be much longer, and cost much more money. These costs might be justified inside each country, like linking Alaska with the rest of the USA, and linking western Alaska with the rest of Alaska. The bridge itself is even harder to finance. The Bering Strait area is extremely remote and sparsely populated. Air is the main mode of travel in the area, and across the strait there are very few chartered flights by small private airlines such as Bering Air, located in Nome. There is no existing car or rail ferry service as there are no roads or railways for it to serve. So far, tourism in Chukotka is hindered by the international border controls and visa requirements. In Russia, a special visit permit is required because of military restrictions; this must be lifted for significant volumes of travel by air or boat to occur. To finance the bridges, fees would be needed. Possible sources of these fees include container traffic between Russia/China and Canada/U.S., which could make the transit much more quickly by rail than by crossing the Pacific Ocean. A bridge which also carried pipelines would earn pipeline revenues. Potential income from these sources is unknown. The main market for the oil would be the contiguous part of the USA, a very long distance away. The cost to ship 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the oil by sea is much lower than the enormous cost for a pipeline. Natural gas is a more likely candidate, due to the relative difficulty of transporting it by ship. Bering Strait crossing I.[10] Also funding could not be raised. Note that Alaska did not belong to Russia at that time, and no railway on the Alaskan side was planned, so a tunnel would not be useful. Alternatives Assuming that the necessary access routes are in place, alternatives to a Bering Strait bridge include: • Car/rail ferry service in summer months. • Car/rail ferry service around the year, requires special top-class ice-capable ferries, and ice breaker assistance. • An immersed tube or tunnel. • A dam, for instance the proposed St Lawrence Dam. • Airplanes • Ferries/freight ships further south, where there are better land connections. Plan The Russian plan for the TKM-World Link involves creating a 6,000 km (3,700 mi) route through Siberia to facilitate economic ties to the U.S. A pipeline will be created to transport natural gas and oil from Siberia.[11] See also • • • • • • • • Bering land bridge Gibraltar Tunnel Seikan Tunnel Channel Tunnel Cosmopolitan Railway Trans Global Highway Strait of Messina Bridge Northern East West Freight Corridor Bering Strait tunnel The TKM-World Link is a planned link between Siberia and Alaska providing oil, natural gas, and electricity to the United States and Canada from Russia. The plan includes provisions to build a 64 mile (103 km) road and rail tunnel under the Bering Strait which, if completed, would become the longest tunnel in the world. [7] As of 2007, the 53.85 km Seikan Tunnel is the longest tunnel of this type. The tunnel would be part of a railway joining Yakutsk, the capital of the Russian Yakutia republic, with the western coast of Alaska. Vladimir Putin, the Russian ex-president, has approved a plan to build a railroad to the Bering Strait area, as a part of the development plan for the years until 2030. A Bering Strait tunnel could be built after this railroad is built. The funding is however doubted. The 64-mile (103 km) tunnel would run under the Bering Strait between Chukotka, in the Russian far east, and Alaska. Putin planned to discuss the tunnel when he met with U.S. President George W. Bush on April 6, 2008.[8] A cost estimate was £33 (US$66) billion.[9] References [1] A Transcontinental Eurasia-America Transport Link via the Bering Strait, at the 1st International Conference "Megaprojects of the Russian East" [2] Kevin Starr. Endangered Dreams: The Great Depression in California, 330. Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0195100808 [3] An excerpt from memoirs of the Russian Empire Minister of Land Forces Aleksandr Rediger (Russian) [4] AlaskaCanadaRail.org [5] http://www.bering-competition.org/ [6] Discovery Channel’s Extreme Engineering [7] Russia Plans World’s Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska | The News is NowPublic.com [8] Trip from Russia to USA may take one hour soon - Pravda.Ru [9] Bridge-building Vladimir Putin wants tunnel to US - Times Online [10] Russia plans $65bn tunnel to America [11] Russia Plans World’s Longest Tunnel, a Link to Alaska • "The Bering Strait Crossing" by James A. Oliver out now in paperback ISBN 0954699564". Information Architects. 2006 & 2007 (Revised). http://www.beringstraitcrossing.com. History Tsar Nicholas II approved a planned tunnel in 1905. According to other sources a railway ferry was planned. These hopes were dashed when Russia became involved in World War 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bering Strait crossing External links • "Russians dream of tunnel to Alaska.". • Alaska History Society Article BBC News.. 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/ • World Peace King Tunnel hi/world/europe/1099304.stm. • Quadrail Intercontinental Railway and • "Russia Plans World’s Longest Tunnel, a Bering Strait Tunnel Design connection to Alaska". Bloomberg. • The Trans-Earth Skyway System 2007-04-18. http://www.bloomberg.com/ • Trans-Global Highway apps/ • The Global Railway news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=a0bsMii8oKXw. • The Bering Strait Crossing Retrieved on 2007-04-18. • Russians dream of tunnel to Alaska. BBC • "Russia Considering Tunnel Between Asia News. 2001 and North America". VOA. 2007-04-19. • Russia Plans World’s Longest Tunnel http://www.voanews.com/english/ Bloomberg News, April 18, 2007 2007-04-19-voa63.cfm. Retrieved on • Alaska Canada Rail Link - Project 2007-04-19. Feasibility Study • TV Feature about T.Y. Lin’s proposal Coordinates: 65°47′N 169°01′W / 65.783°N 169.017°W / 65.783; -169.017 • Discovery Channel’s Extreme Engineering Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bering_Strait_crossing" Categories: Railroad bridges in Alaska, Railroad tunnels in Alaska, Transportation in Alaska, Railway bridges in Russia, Railway tunnels in Russia, Transport in Russia, Future public transportation, Megastructures, Nome Census Area, Alaska, Future bridges in the United States, International bridges This page was last modified on 20 May 2009, at 22:02 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers 4